TEA concerns spur a visit: EPISD special needs program problems are focus

AUSTIN -- Irregularities in the way the El Paso Independent School District educates some special needs students have drawn increased scrutiny from the state and could lead to sanctions if not corrected.

Texas Education Agency officials will be at EPISD this week to assess whether the school district has corrected problems related to the education of special needs children living in residential facilities such as nursing homes. Agency officials said those problems, which were identified during a visit from the agency in the 2010-11 school year, include inadequate documentation to show if parents of special needs students were included in committee meetings that address their children's needs and the possibility that some special education students did not receive the services and accommodations they are allowed under state and federal law.

The visit is partly a repercussion of the district's inability to correct several irregularities by a May 2012 deadline, agency officials said.

Agency officials will also assess program monitoring for students participating in Career and Technical Education, bilingual and English as a Second Language programs and at-risk students under the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act.

TEA officials did not provide many specifics about the weeklong visit. They instead provided the El Paso Times with a letter that the agency sent the district in October explaining the visit.

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The letter said the district was chosen because of "substantial, imminent, or ongoing risks across programs." It explained that the school district had reached various stages that require corrective action for its residential facilities monitoring, its Career and Technical program, its bilingual education/English as a Second Language program and No Child Left Behind.

"For multiple years, red flags have been raised about the implementation of those programs so, the higher the stage, the longer there has been a concern or issue and when you hit those stages that's what triggers this visit," TEA spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said. "That's why there's definitely ongoing substantial risks in these areas."

Residential facilities

The letter focused primarily on EPISD's failure to correct a portion of the irregularities that the state agency found in the district's educational program for students with disabilities who are living in nursing homes or in other residential facilities.

Texas Education Agency officials gave EPISD 17 citations in May 2011 after visiting the school district for an inspection of 2010-11 data two months earlier.

The district was given a year to fix the deficiencies, but only corrected 10 issues.

Seven deficiencies are still pending, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Sam Forsythe, the director of Special Education at EPISD, said the district has struggled to clear some of the deficiencies the state identified because any error in the documentation could cause the district to be considered noncompliant.

Forsythe said the school district has 6,000 special education students. He said between 150 and 200 are in "residential facilities" such as hospitals or the state-supported living center in El Paso.

The state was looking at the records of about 40 to 50 students when it identified the discrepancies, Forsythe said.

"We haven't cleared them because, literally, if we submit one file and there's one signature not recorded or one signature out of place, then it's considered non-compliant, so it's 100 percent perfect," Forsythe said.

"We have to be perfect and although we believe that we take care of these students very, very well, the state has a different view."

The state makes about 60 on-site monitoring visits annually, but each visit is different. Ratcliffe said the initial set of 17 citations at EPISD was "on the long side."

The remaining irregularities are:

Inadequate documentation that shows parent participation in Admission, Review and Dismissal committee meetings, which are required for special education students.

Insufficient documentation of training for surrogate parents, or those individuals who would act in place of the parent.

Insufficient documentation on the implementation of support for student inclusion in the classroom, which is outlined in the student's Individualized Education Program.

Lack of clarity in documentation on the frequency and duration of academic support and related services for special education students.

Discrepancies in evaluations of services related to a child's education.

Discrepancies related to alignment of the related services evaluation results with the child's needs.

Related services evaluation not conducted within the timeline of the Admission, Review and Dismissal committee.

Sanctions possible

The October letter announcing the state's visit said the district "must take immediate steps to rectify the continuing noncompliance."

"As an initial step, the TEA will engage in escalated verification activities to ensure that compliance is documented," Karen Batchelor, with TEA's Program Monitoring and Interventions, wrote. "However, the TEA reserves the right to utilize any of the interventions and sanctions noted in the state laws and rules referenced above in order to obtain compliance with program requirements."

Ratcliffe said the agency will determine whether those issues have been addressed during the visit this week by meeting with staff, reviewing documents and listening to parents in the community.

She said the district is responsible for inviting parents to meet with the state agency during the visit.

"We've been in contact with (the district), but because these have been ongoing issues, staff are going to El Paso to look at the situation for themselves and to talk to stakeholders," Ratcliffe said.

Forsythe said the district has teleconferenced monthly with the state for the last two years in an effort to correct the problems.

Forsythe said he believes the district has corrected three of the seven irregularities, but is still working on the remaining four.

He said the threat of sanctions is worrying.

"Anytime that statement is made we're concerned, but we're confident that we've continued to improve," Forsythe said.

"We're doing better than we did two years ago, three years ago, and so we feel like our goal next week is to clear everything and get a positive report and go back to regular monitoring."

Agency officials have not decided what sanctions they would impose if their visit determines that problems persist at the school district saying, "The determination of any future intervention actions is based on the findings of the review."

A preliminary report of findings would generally be issued within 90 days after the on-site visit, officials said.

The most severe sanctions could include appointing a monitor to participate in and report to the agency on the activities of the board of trustees or the superintendent, a conservator to oversee the operations of the district, or appointing a board of managers to direct the operations of the district in areas of insufficient performance.

The state has already assigned a conservator to the school district because of a districtwide cheating scandal and has asked the federal government to clear the way for the placement of a board of managers.

Ratcliffe said those sanctions are not related to the current review of the district.

"These are ongoing issues with the district," Ratcliffe said. "It's not related to that situation."

Ratcliffe said the state-appointed conservator's primary focus has been the cheating scheme at the school district but she said her role could be broadened to include other matters.

Zahira Torres may be reached at ztorre@selpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.

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